


As Long As Stars Are Above You

by Blazesurrender, KanraKixystix



Series: Clone Cadet Chronicles [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Come as Lube, Feelings Realization, First Time, Fluff and Smut, Hopeful Ending, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Mando'a, Rimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:08:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22609813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blazesurrender/pseuds/Blazesurrender, https://archiveofourown.org/users/KanraKixystix/pseuds/KanraKixystix
Summary: Fives can't sleep. Echo can't sleep. With their second chance at the Citadel Challenge looming over their heads, they realize that tonight is the last chance they'll get to talk.
Relationships: CT-21-0408 | Echo/CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555
Series: Clone Cadet Chronicles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1626859
Comments: 13
Kudos: 109
Collections: Echo&Fives





	As Long As Stars Are Above You

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place while they are cadets on Kamino, the night before redoing the big challenge to finally graduate and ship out. Mando'a translations are in the end notes.

Somehow, despite tension laying thick across their quarters, the members of Domino Squad manage to fall asleep. Most of them, at least. Fives _should_ be asleep too. The sounds of his squadmates’ deep, steady breathing _should_ lull him into unconsciousness. They _should._ They don’t. Restless and unable to get comfortable, he tosses and turns. The sensation of someone’s attention on him prompts him to roll over again, before he props himself up slightly. He finds himself facing Echo across the short distance between their bunks.

“Can’t sleep?” Fives winces at the way his whisper shatters the silence. Wary of waking the rest of Domino Squad, he restrains his relieved exhale when Echo’s affirmative response is much better disguised as an unintelligible noise of sleep.

“Me neither.” This time he’s able to mitigate the volume to more of a sigh than coherent speech. Uncomfortable with the disquiet blanketing them, Fives slides out of his bunk, closes the distance to Echo’s, and gently tugs one of his hands.

 _“What are you doing?!"_ Despite Echo’s hushed objection, he shares Fives’s tension and unease. The second chance their squad has been offered hangs imminent and menacing in the eventual threat of dawn. Echo doesn’t protest further as Fives leads him out to the hall. As the door hisses shut behind them, his curiosity and adrenaline spike.

“Where are we going?” 

Earnestly, Fives responds without looking at him or dropping his hand, “You’ll see.”

With a long-suffering sigh, Echo accepts whatever misadventure he’s being dragged into. The access code punched into the lift’s operation panel is one he doesn’t recognize, but Echo doesn’t question it aloud, distracted by the warmth of Fives’s hand clutching his own. When they reach their destination and step out, Echo realizes that he’s been led to the roof.

Tipoca’s skies are in a rare state of near clarity. Thin clouds chase each other into the horizons, and the moons are dark. Echo allows himself to be pulled further from the lift before asking again, softer this time despite the way anxiety coils tightly in his chest at the continued non-answers. “What’re we doing up here?”

Refusing to meet his eyes, Fives releases his hand and plops cross-legged to the roof beneath them. He turns his face studiously toward the stars blinking serenely above them, still avoiding eye contact. “Sit with me?” The question is threaded with so much hesitant hope that Echo has no chance of denying him. Not that he’s ever really been interested in denying Fives anything anyway, letting him take point often enough to get them both into trouble. With a soft exhale, Echo obligingly drops to sit beside him and waits for him to break the silence.

“Kas is particularly bright tonight.” He’s still persistently dodging Echo’s earlier questions. It’s _weird_. Between his general anxiety about their upcoming challenge and Fives’s insistence on refusing to give him a straight answer, Echo is already rankled. Defensive sarcasm slips into his tone.

“Yeah. It’s a giant molten rock floating around its sun. Molten rocks tend to be bright.”

Fives seems to collapse into himself in the face of Echo’s irritation. His shuttered bewilderment inspires a flare of guilt. “Wait, I think you’re right.” Now that the reluctance to meet each others’ eyes is mutual, Echo finds himself also contemplating the skies. “Kas does seem particularly bright tonight.” Fives slowly seems to come back to himself, tentatively raising a hand to gesture at the cloudy band of distant stars.

“There’s the north band of the Galaxy Proper.” As they point out the known stars, constellations, and other visible astrological phenomenon to one another in turns, the knot of unease in Echo’s stomach slowly begins to unravel.

Repeating the names of the star-clusters, of _knowing_ the right answers, gives him enough of a confidence boost to turn to Fives again. “Why did you bring me up here? I know you. You’re always up to _something_.”

The question seems to make him flinch, but he manages a strangled chuckle, “You let me lead often enough regardless.” After pausing to try to collect himself again, Fives quietly explains, “I wanted to try to help you feel better.” The rest of his words are spoken with too much reservation and the wind sweeps them away. When Echo raises an eyebrow in question, Fives silently curses the heat in his cheeks. "I… I also just wanted to be close to you for one more night," what Fives doesn't say out loud is, _'i_ _n case we don’t see each other again after tomorrow.'_

Without needing the explanation, Echo understands. He knows that if they succeed in their undertaking tomorrow, there is a chance that they'll be stationed apart. "I…” He trails off, not entirely sure what to say. He tries again, “I’m glad you did. Made time for me, I mean."

Emboldened by Echo's appreciation, Fives scoots closer until he's able to lean their shoulders together. He tries to gather the strength to say what he needs to say. A soft sigh shudders through him. He blindly reaches to take Echo's hand, hoping the tremor in his own will go unnoticed. Echo's fingers tighten encouragingly around Fives's, and it gives him the strength to continue. He braces himself with a deep inhale.

"I want-", His throat feels like sandpaper, "I-" Fives swallows hard.

"Take your time, Fives." Echo's voice is so painfully understanding it makes his heart _ache_. Fives knows he would gladly follow that voice anywhere. Echo drops his cheek onto Fives's shoulder and pulls their clasped hands to his own chest, tracing loose patterns over their knuckles.

Fives pushes out a single breath, "I couldn’t lose this chance to tell you I love you."

His heart almost stops when Echo's fingers pause their motion across Fives's knuckles. It thunders back to life when a gentle breath skims his cheek. "You..." The wonder in his tone makes Fives's breath catch. "I couldn't let the future loom over us anymore, not without telling you." Fives brings their joined hands to his face and gently touches his lips to the back of Echo's hand.

"Fives, I-"

Carefully and ever so slowly, Fives turns to face him and moves closer, "Please stop me if this isn't what you want." His voice is barely a whisper as he leans forward. He’s almost desperate, terrified that he's misread every sidelong glance, every slightly lingering touch, "I don't think I can stop myself if you don't say something-"

When Echo murmurs, his exhale puffs warm against Fives's cheek, "I don't think I can ask you to stop," their breath mingles when he tilts his head slightly, "not when I want you to keep going." Neither of them knows who closes the last hair's breadth between their lips, but it doesn’t matter because Echo has to focus on kissing the wounded noise from Fives's mouth.

When Echo ducks away for air, Fives has leaned forward over him, one hand cradling Echo's face, the other braced against the roof under them. Fives carefully guides him back, chasing his lips for more kisses, and follows their momentum until they're sprawled together.

With a breathless laugh, Echo dances his fingers along Fives's jaw. His legs part easily and Fives slots between them as if he’s meant to be there. The bright spark in his eyes when Echo can’t suppress the quirk of his lips makes something flutter happily in Fives’s chest. He kisses Echo’s forehead with a low chortle, "What’re you thinking about that’s got you so happy?" 

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Echo laughs again, his warm eyes shining brighter than any star in the sky above them. 

"Probably, but I want to hear you say it anyway," Fives grins cheekily, which earns him an eye-roll. 

"Just for that, I'm not going to," comes the affectionately snarky reply, and now Fives knows he's been a bad influence on him. He snickers and nuzzles soft kisses into Echo’s neck. The scent of him is somehow both comforting and titillating. Experimentally, Fives parts his lips to brush an open-mouthed kiss against the quick, steady, beat under his tongue.

Echo tilts his head back accommodatingly, stretching and offering easier access. He swallows the moan that tries to rise when Fives's fingertips dip slightly under the waistband of his blacks. Neither of them can quite decide what to do with their hands, exploring the lines and planes of each other. Fives slides his hand up the hem of Echo's shirt and trails his thumb around a nipple mesmerized when it stiffens under his touch. Echo arches up into Fives's ministrations with a smothered gasp, "Tease-"

"Oh, you like that, do you?" Fives's grin turns positively wicked, and he plucks the nipple playfully, earning him a sharp, soft exclamation. 

"Fives, don't -"

"Why not?" He does it again, and this time Echo writhes. "Oh,” Fives breathes, “they're _really_ sensitive, aren't they?" He rolls the pert bud between his fingers and is absolutely captivated by both the way Echo squirms and by the sweet blush spreading across his face and down his neck.

Enthralled with Echo's reactions to his touch, Fives can't resist skating his free hand up the trembling skin to toy with the other as well. He rolls both in synchrony, earning another moan which Echo muffles into his own hand. In protest, Fives flicks both of the peaked nipples under his fingers, earning a bitten off noise somewhere between a squeak and a whimper. Fives leans down to purr into Echo's ear, grinding slightly against him, "It's just us, Echo. Let me hear you."

Gradually, Echo does move his hand, and Fives is greeted with what is easily the most beautiful sound he's ever heard. 

"Fives…”, Hearing his name on Echo’s lips in _that_ tone sends a thrill of uncontrollable desire through him. Fives delicately spirals his fingertips around both sensitive nipples, relishing the way Echo arches into his touch.

“More, _please_ Fives- I need…” The wordless noise of desire sends a shiver down Fives’s spine.

Fives gets an idea. He grips the hem of Echo's shirt and pulls it over his head. Before the garment can slip off entirely, Fives pins it- along with both wrists- over Echo's head with one hand.

The sight of Echo bare chested and arms stretched above him, jaw dropped in a silent whine, is enough to inspire Fives to shrug out of the top half of his own blacks. He's unable to stifle his own relieved groan as he stretches leisurely along Echo's body, still pinning his hands over his head where they're tangled in the black shirt, and rolling his hips down to meet the answering hardness tenting Echo's pants.

Fives still has one hand free to tease and torment one of Echo's nipples, and at this angle he's able to dip his head down and seal his mouth over the other. The sound that bursts from Echo's lips rings high, and he shudders under Fives's adept fingers and tongue and _teeth_. He struggles to get his arms free of his blacks but to no avail. Fives has him exactly where he wants him. 

"Keep that up and," he pauses to pant as Fives brushes light, tortuously teasing touches over the nipple under his finger, "this will be over faster than either of us want it to be."

"You think so?" Fives smirks and lifts his head up to admire the rosy flush on Echo's cheeks. "I think you have more stamina than that."

Echo groans and squeezes his eyes shut. "You have more faith in my stamina than I do Five- _hhhhaah_ -" he breaks off in an inarticulate cry as Fives lashes the stiffening peak under his tongue. When the lips around his nipple buzz with affectionate laughter, Echo can't help but buck into him in a panic, "Fives _please_ , you're going to finish me off before we've even gotten started!"

Fives entertains the idea of going until Echo _does_ come from this alone. He wants to feel his partner find release under his tongue without having directly touched his cock at all… but he also wants to drag this out, to see how many ways he can get Echo to moan his name.

"Okay, you win," Fives relents and lifts his head to kiss Echo properly. A grateful sigh that sounds suspiciously more like a sob of relief is kissed into his mouth. He readily swallows it down. His fingertips burn with anticipation as they skim the waistband of Echo’s blacks. With all the restraint Fives can muster, he sits up and drags them down to reveal the hard length leaking against Echo’s stomach.

Licking his lips, Fives rakes his eyes over the sight of the man beneath him. "Beautiful."

Echo’s voice is embarrassingly weak when he tries to respond, "Fives-" but before he can finish his protest that they have the _same_ body, the tip of his cock is enveloped in warm, wet, blessed, heat. His head falls back with a _thump_ , and his hips stutter under the firm grip Fives has on them. Fives bobs down once, twice, careful to only take as much as he can handle. Echo can't resist untangling his hands from his blacks just to curl his fingers through Fives's hair. _'_ _So_ _ft ',_ he muses to himself, distantly wondering if the texture under his hands was the result of a random mutation during early development.

The delighted moan vibrating in the throat around his length wipes all coherent thought from his mind. It would have broken Echo apart if Fives hadn't wrapped a strong, steady grip around the base of Echo's erection and squeezed gently.

Fives lifts his mouth, allowing Echo's cock to smack wetly against his stomach. Even _that_ feels like too much stimulation, and Echo can't muffle his desperately keening whimper in his hands because they're tightening where they're fisted in Fives's hair.

Their eyes meet, and Fives sounds _wrecked_ , "So kriffing beautiful."

"O-Our bodies are the same," Echo breathes out. There's more to his argument, like how Fives has to know that, how they have the same genetics. There aren't any differences, and certainly nothing that he hasn't seen before.

"Nah," Fives brushes off his comment with a soft smile. "This one is all yours. See this?" Fives grazes a reverent touch over a small slightly puckered mark in the crease of his hip that's a lighter shade than the rest of his skin. "I remember when you got this. We were still in Basic. And this one,” he brushes over a fully healed burn, “You got while saving my ass in training just a few weeks ago.”

"And, this of course…” Fives smirks and brushes a thumb over one of his nipples, eliciting a gasp at the sensation. A reminder that he won’t be forgetting how utterly _responsive_ Echo is to that particular stimulation. "That's all you.” Fives splays one hand over Echo’s chest, leaning down to press a sweet, undemanding kiss to his lips. He murmurs against soft lips, “and you are _beautiful,_ ” before backing off enough to tug down his own blacks. He kicks them carelessly aside and sits up on his haunches for Echo to examine by starlight.

Furrowing a brow as he sits up, Echo allows his fingertips to graze down Fives's face. He has difficulty pulling his attention away from their obvious similarities, but once he does, he's almost startled by just how different they are. The lines of their faces, the spark in their eyes, the arch of their eyebrows… all so very slightly different from his own, due to the effect differences in personality have on facial muscle development. Echo trails his touch along Fives's jaw, pausing at his throat to feel his pulse thrumming fast and steady. 

Echo can't stop himself from leaning across the distance between them and gently touching their foreheads together. His hands map their way down lean shoulders, pausing only briefly to trace the faded line of a scar from a training accident years ago. Echo's exploration of Fives’s arms only pauses again once he reaches his hands.

Fives watches Echo attentively examine the palm of his hand, comparing it to his own. "Even our calluses are different," he marvels, and he presses his lips to the palm he'd been examining a moment before.

The butterflies in Fives's chest flutter, and his cheeks warm with delight. He trails his fingers along Echo's jaw and a soft smile spreads over his lips. "See?"

Echo continues to explore him. His eyes rake over the expanse of his chest, memorizing each mark that differs from his own with complete wonder. 

His hands follow his line of sight, sliding back up Fives’s arms to map his torso. Echo drags his attention down over taut abs, tracing the shape in fascination. Fives shivers. The way Echo is handling him, like something precious or beautiful- like he’s a work of art- causes his breath to hitch in his chest.

"Perfect." Echo whispers quietly. "You're perfect Fives."

Fives doesn't try to restrain the self-deprecating huff, "I'm so far from perfect, Echo." He frames Echo's face in his hands, “I have as many flaws and talents as any of our brothers, but listen to me,” Fives pauses to ensure that he still has his full attention, “No matter what happens tomorrow, you are the _only_ person in the entire galaxy who's able to do what _you_ do."

He's briefly stunned into silence. When he's able to speak again he nuzzles into Fives's hand, teasing weakly, "and what is it exactly that I'm allegedly able to excel at?"

Solemnly, Fives kisses him and says simply, "You remember." Echo has a feeling that Fives isn't just talking about rules and regulations, confirmed when he continues, "You remember everything. All the details. Anything that you set your mind to." Another reverent kiss is pressed into the corner of Echo's mouth. “That’s partly how I convinced myself to bring you up here to tell and show you _exactly_ how I feel. I-” He takes a deep, bracing breath, “I needed to know that I’d tried to tell you. I was never _certain_ that you felt the same, but I did hope…” a sharp inhale, “and then you came with me to Master Ti, willing to be transferred with me and I thought _surely_ …” Fives smiles then, warm and soft and blindingly bright, “and you _do,_ Echo. I had to tell you. I had to know that you _knew_ how important you are to me.”

Echo _keens_ at the sweet affirmations and threads his fingers through Fives's hair. "I want to remember all of this, what you feel like, taste like..." He pulls Fives close, welcoming the skin contact down the lengths of their bodies. There’s a tremor in his voice when he speaks again, "I want to remember this night forever."

"You will, Echo." Fives kisses the words into his cheek. There's a promise in his voice. Despite his sincerity he can't suppress the soft, slightly strained laugh as he breathes against Echo's lips, "I'll have you here until dawn, if it would help you remember."

" _Please_ , Fives," Echo laughs breathlessly. "I'd stay up here til dawn with you regardless."

Five snorts, but warm fondness resonates in his voice, "I won't let us get automatically disqualified from the challenge for breaking curfew." Echo kisses Fives again, then lays back. A tentatively coy smile plays across his lips.

The raspy, incoherent noise torn from him should be embarrassing, but Fives can't bring himself to care. The scene before him is too ethereal for him to care: Echo reclining back in such a way, the playfulness in his expression, the soft illumination of starlight around them. Unable to resist the draw of Echo’s lips, he leans down to kiss him again. "You have the stars in your eyes."

He kisses the resulting laugh from Echo's mouth too, but not before he manages to exclaim, "And you're a hopeless romantic!"

A smile quirks Fives's expression, "I dunno Echo, I'm feeling pretty hope _ful_ right now."

Echo grins, his eyes crinkling with amusement and loops his arms over the back of Fives's neck. "Tell me about them. Your hopes, and your dreams. I want to know _everything._ "

A low chuckle bubbles from Fives's lips. "I don't know about _all_ that, but I know that _this-_ that being with you- feels enough like one to be a dream. You make me happy, Echo. Knowing you makes all the training, the preparation for this war, feel worth it."

Their smiles melts into something deeper and softer. Echo doesn't realize how lost he is in kissing Fives until a deft hand slips between their stomachs and tugs their erections in tandem.

A low moan is all he can manage as the feeling _sings_ in Echo’s skin. Warm lips and blunt nails lightly drag across his shoulders. He had almost forgotten how much tension had built already until Fives had taken their stiff cocks in hand. Heat clouds the edges of his vision again, and he rocks his hips into Fives's palm. 

"So good, Fives." To himself, he adds fiercely, _'I still think you're perfect.'_

Fives seals his mouth over Echo's in a burning kiss and tightens his hand around them both, spreading the resulting beads of precum over the heads of their cocks. 

When he has to pull back for oxygen his voice is little more than a gasp as he pants Echo's name into his collarbone. Reluctantly, with a soft kiss in apology, he releases their straining lengths so he can work his mouth down Echo's body again.

His mouth bypasses Echo's aching arousal entirely, nuzzling a sloppy kiss behind his balls. That's all the warning Echo gets before Fives drives his tongue _in_ , to start opening him up to take him. One hand still slowly, too slowly, pumps his length in a loose grip.

" _Hhhhhhn!_ ” Echo's needy moan peals louder than either of them should be, and his hands fly to his mouth to conceal further noises. Helpless in the face of the tide of need, Echo pulls his spread knees up to his chest to give Fives better access. His shiver has nothing to do with the wind, and everything to do with the man stroking and kissing and licking him to pieces. This is beyond anything Echo could have ever imagined. He’d never thought that anything could feel so agonizingly good, or so _right_ , with anyone- let alone with Fives.

Fives laps a thick stripe from Echo's entrance up to his taut sack, before pulling his mouth away and rumbling softly, "I _will_ pin your wrists again if you keep trying to hide those lovely noises from me, Echo. Don't think I won't."

With a sharp whine, Echo forces his hands from his mouth and tangles his fingers into his own hair, writhing under the contact from Fives's tongue and hand. 

"M-More, Fives. _Please_ -"

“Better,” Fives smirks into the inside of Echo’s thigh. He enthusiastically returns his attention to the neglected hole until it's fluttering desperately under his tongue. The tip of an index finger slowly sinks in, aided by his own saliva. Fives works his tongue and touch patiently over the tight ring until Echo has relaxed enough to take the whole finger.

"Very good, Echo." Fives kisses the words firmly into one trembling thigh and traces his thumb under the head of the stiff trembling cock in his grasp, "You're doing so well for me." Echo tightens his fists in his own hair at the praise, and his head _thuds_ against the roof under them. 

Grinning, Fives seals his mouth over the soft skin of Echo's thigh and sucks hard enough to mark. He draws his hand to his lips again to lick a second finger until it's slick enough to slide in alongside the first. He quirks them just _so_ , and it's a good thing his free hand had preemptively squeezed the base of Echo's cock again because that would have _ended_ him.

The biting, the fingers, the _praise_... it's all so good, so overwhelming in the best possible ways. Echo arches off the ground and shudders as the moan that tears through him rings out into the stars above them.

"Fives, Fives...I..." Tears prick the corners of his eyes from coming so close to the edge yet again.

“K’uur, k’uur,” the Mando'a comfort unintentionally slips out, as Fives mouths wetly around each of Echo's balls in turn, before sucking one softly into his mouth and laving it with his tongue.

Echo's vision goes spotty, and all he can think to do is fuck himself down on the digits working him open as third finger joins the two. The stretch is easier, each drag against the bundle of nerves dragging him precariously closer to orgasm. 

It happens too suddenly, too fast, and Echo's scream is silent at first, then rings out into the night as his hips jerk. He comes hard, shooting over his torso and spilling over Fives's hand. His cry is broken and drawn out as he rides out his orgasm, cheeks flush and eyes glassy, completely blissed out. 

"Beautiful, Echo; you’re so good for me." Fives purrs and brings his hands to his mouth, licking his thumb clean before he smearing some across the pout of Echo's lip. "You're karking delicious, you know." 

Echo whines and licks the cum from the edge of his mouth, tasting himself before he greedily seeks out Fives's other digits, sucking them salaciously and allowing the excess to down his chin.

Fives retracts the three fingers from Echo's ass, and palms himself desperately. Not wanting to push Echo past what he's comfortable with, he presses a kiss to his hip, "We can head back down once you've caught your breath," he can't stop himself from thrusting weakly into his own hand, "I won't pressure you into anything-"

"Fives-" Echo gasps, with just enough breath to interrupt him, "if you don't fuck me right _now_ , I swear on the Republic, I'll make you regret it.” After a weak struggle, he grudgingly adds, “Once I can stand again."

Fives can't suppress the grin splitting his face at the response. "Yeah, yeah okay." Fives nods and hastily swipes some of the come from Echo's stomach and slicks his cock before he lines himself up. 

Echo spreads his thighs wider for him. Trembling from the effort of restraining himself, Fives presses on. His breath against Echo's shoulder is ragged. Fives _tries_ to tell Echo how good he feels around him, but only manages a disjointed moan.

Echo seems to understand anyway, tangling his fingers in Fives's hair and wrapping his legs securely around his waist. Squeezing slightly, he just wants to revel in being so thoroughly split open and filled by the cock inside him. Fives's trembling doesn't cease, and Echo cards through his hair. He murmurs gently, "You can move; I'll be alright-" the stuttering thrust pitches his consent into a mewl, and he tightens around Fives again.

Unable to stop now, Fives allows himself to find a rhythm. Hard. Deep. Claiming. Every thrust earns him another fractured moan and more of Echo's desperate, open-mouthed kisses.

He sounds completely and utterly wrecked as he softly chants Fives's name over and over again, holding him tightly as if he's afraid he'll drift away, hopelessly turned on by Fives _using_ him. He can’t stop shifting his hips to try to take him deeper. 

Fives doesn't relent now that he's moving. Echo is amazing, beautiful, scorching hot and so _tight_ around his cock. His voice is low and filthy, "I’m going to make a mess of you, Echo.” Fives fervently kisses across his shoulder, “I want to mark you and make you mine in every sense of the word."

To make his point, Fives leans down to suck a mark into his collarbone. Echo's mouth drops open in a silently needy sob, which Fives immediately reclaims in a fierce press of lips.

 _"Mine,"_ He pants into the warm air between their mouths. " _Mesh'la,_ Echo, so perfectly beautiful for me- around me-" Fives buries the rest of his fevered praise in the soft skin at the hollow of Echo's throat.

He can _feel_ Fives losing control. It's in the stutter of his hips, the catch of his breath, the throb of his cock. "I _want_ you to make a mess of me, Fives," He manages to gasp, "please- _gedet'ye_ \- make me yours-" Echo meets every one of his thrusts as they become more erratic, "Let it all go, Fives. Give me _everything_." Echo hums against the shell of his ear, and Fives grunts as his body shudders with the impact of his orgasm. 

The hushed, lewd words are Fives's undoing and he bites his wordless scream into Echo's shoulder as he finally spills into the desperate, writhing body under him. The feeling of Fives losing himself inside him, covering him, claiming him, making him completely _his_ … It's overwhelming. Echo leans his face into Fives's neck as he clings to him. Blunt nails scrape over his hips and leave angry red streaks. 

Fives knows, he _knows_ , he would give Echo everything if he asked.

Fives can't suppress a soft, overstimulated sob as Echo clenches around him, drawing out the last weakening throbs of his release.

"Echo~" he sounds thoroughly _shattered._ Fives only barely manages to not completely squash Echo when he finally collapses, entwining their limbs as best as he can.

Echo peppers soft, contented, reverent kisses over every bit of Fives's face, gently carding fingers through his hair.

They lay in silence for a long while simply listening to one another breathe, the looming reality sinking in around them. That this might be the first and last time together, that after tomorrow's test they could never see each other again. It stings Echo in a way that he doesn't expect, and he gasps, shudders, and clutches Fives closer to him.

Fives instinctively, protectively curls over Echo when he feels Echo's arms tighten. _'I swear to you, Echo,'_ he thinks to himself, _'I swear I'll_ **_never_ ** _let anything happen to you. I don't care what it takes.'_

Echo buries his face in the crook of Fives's neck and bites back a sob that has nothing to do with the pleasure they'd shared, eyes wide with horrid realization. 

"I don't think I can do this, Fives. I can't...I don't want this to end." Echo's eyes are squeezed shut, but the tears still trickle from beneath his eyelashes.

Fives shivers against him, curling closer, _'If I have to cross the galaxy to find you, I will.'_

Fives wraps himself tighter around Echo to try to chase away the tremors running through them both. All the comforting words he _wants_ to say stick in his throat. He pulls back just enough to lean their foreheads together.

Through the lump in his throat he manages to grit out, "Echo, look at me." 

Unable to refuse anything from Fives, he obeys. Tears cling to his lashes, catching the starlight.

Fives takes a deep, bracing inhale, cherishing the blended scent of _them_ . Bringing his hands up to cradle Echo's face, he forces himself to meet Echo's eyes. There aren't enough words in basic to describe how he feels, so he leans more insistently into the embrace, "Ni kar'tali gar darasuum. Forever. As long as I live, Echo, you'll be in my heart." Fives continues, breathing steadier now that he's said that much, "It won't be easy, if they... if we don't see each other after tomorrow. But out there, no matter where I am, I'll be fighting for you, Echo. I'll be fighting for _us_. That's something no one can ever take away from me."

"F-Fives!" He should scold him. He really, really should. He sighs to steady his breathing and searches Fives’s eyes, softly repeating the words in their closest translation to himself in basic, "I love you." Turning his attention back to Fives, he continues, "No matter where we end up, I'll always be thinking of you, fighting for you…” Echo hesitates. “I am yours after all, right?" 

The sweet smile seems sad. "Yeah, all mine. So you better stay alive and keep fighting until I can see you again and freshen up those marks."

Echo shivers again, a more immediate concern finally filtering through his thoughts as exhaustion sets in.

"Fives I..." He takes a breath, "I don't want to sleep alone." 

Relief washes over him in a soothing wave of comfort. Fives leans their cheeks together, his breath puffing softly against Echo's ear, "I wasn't planning to let you sleep alone anyway, cyar'ika."

Painstakingly, Fives begins the arduous task of shifting them both upright. "Lets get back to our quarters, we still have a few hours with each other before we need to be up." He flashes Echo a cheeky grin, “Just to be clear, you are coming to bed with me?”

The corners of Echo's lips tug into a smile and he manages a soft laugh. "Of course I am." 

He lets Fives pull him up and he gathers his clothes, thankful that the mess they've made managed to not get on them. Still uncertain about their paths from here on out, he dresses slowly, dragging out their time together as long as he can

When neither of them can come up with further reason to delay their return, Fives laces their fingers together, and they make their way back to the barracks. They manage to sneak in undetected, and with wordless communication they agree to slide into Fives's bunk. He pulls the sheet over them both, taking care to ensure that Echo is covered, before curling close around him. All they can do is wait for the morning, and face whatever it may bring. Together.

**Author's Note:**

> Mando’a guide:  
> K’uur- shh/hush  
> Mesh’la- beautiful  
> Gedet’ye- please  
> Ni kar’tayli gar darasuum- I know and hold you in my heart forever  
> Cyar’ika- sweetheart, darling


End file.
